Game device



March 9 1937. A w A s 2,073,132

- GAME DEVICE Filed Dec. 18, 1953 CONTACT HARRY 5. W/Ll/AMS,

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Patented Mar. 9, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GAME DEVICE v Harry E. Williams, Los Angeles, Calm, aslignor to Pacific Amusement Mfg. Company, Los Angeles, Calif., a copartnership composed of Fred C. McClellan an d Jesse McClellan Application December 18, 1933, Serial No. 702,927

3 Claims.

across a preferably inclined playing board, and

although the playing board is substantially fiat and horizontal, these details are not of primary l importance since it is the principal object of the invention to provide in a game device of the general character herein described certain specified pockets or receivers to receive the balls and another pocket or receiver which is, for convenience,

15 and as a matter of interest to the players of the game, called the contact pocket. Operating in conjunction with the contact pocket I provide means, preferably electrical in operation which will operate in response to a ball entering the 20 contact pocket to dislodge from one or more of the specified pockets such balls as may be resting therein.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a series of secondary pockets of higher scoring value into which balls may advance from the specified pockets in which they were initially received.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a device of the foregoing character which has very 30 simple means for advancing a ball from a pocket in which it is initially received to a pocket of higher scoring value, such advancing means including a simple and positively acting switch means at the contact pocket and solenoid means 35 disposed in such relation to the pocket in which a ball to be advanced is initially received so that the armature or moving part thereof will positively move the ball from the pocket and cause the same to move to a secondary pocket.

40 Further objects and advantages of the invention will be brought out in the following part of the specification.

Referring to the drawing which is for illustrative purposes only,

45 Fig. 1 is a plan view of a preferred form of the invention in which the playing field or board is in an inclined position and the receivers for the balls are in the form of ball seats or pockets.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary section on a 50 longitudinal vertical plane extending through the table structure of Fig. 1, showing the switch 1 means associated with the contact pocket, this View also including a diagram of the electric circuit of the invention.

66 Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section on the same plane as Fig. 2, showing my preferred means for dislodging a ball from a receiving or primary pocket so that it may move to a pocket of higher scoring value. 6

In the form of theinvention shown in Fig. 1, I employ a table structure ll having a playing field comprising a. board I2 which is downwardly recessed or oflset with relation to a peripheral wall. structure ll forming a boundary for the playing filed l2. In accordance with the custom ary practices in the manufacture of game devices of the general character shown, a plunger I4 is adapted to impel] a playing ball l5 through a channel I6 onto the playing field l2, the purpose of so doing being to cause the ball ii to pass into certain receivers, represented in general by pockets or openings, as will be hereinafter set forth.

As shown in Fig. 2, the board [2 constituting the playing field has a sliding panel ll disposed thereunder, this sliding panel I! having openings l8 therein in accordance with known practices in the art. Below the sliding panel I! is a floor 26 which receives the balls l5 which have been dropped through the openings I8 in the sliding panel l1, and down which the balls l5 roll to a space, not shown, from which they may be lifted one at a time by a suitable ball elevating device having an operating handle 22, into the lower end of the channel l6.

The board l2 has a number of ordinary pockets 23 formed by holes in the board l2, which may be partly outlined by pins 24, but of prime importance are the openings 25 forming primary pockets, ball seats, or receivers, the openings 26 forming secondary pockets, ball seats, or receivers, and the opening 21, preferably at the upper end of the board l2, forming the exit opening or contact receiver. Pins 26 are placed along the secondary receivers 26 to guide thereintoballs which have been dislodged from the primary receivers 25 in the playing of the game.

In the playing of the game, it is attempted to shoot the balls [5 so that both of the primary receivers 25 will be occupied. In so doing some of the balls may enter the ordinary pockets 23 or the no count pocket 36. With one or both of the primary pockets 25 filled, the player tries to place a marble in the contact opening 21 so as to cause the balls in the pockets 25 to advance to the first of the secondary pockets 26, each of which are shown as having twice the scoring value of the primary pockets 25.

As shown in Fig. 2, there is an opening 3| in the sliding panel ll below the contact receiver or opening 21 so-that a ball may drop down onto the forward raised end 32 of a centrally fulorumed lever 33 having a mercury switch 34 secured to the rearward end thereof in such position that the body of mercury 33 will be normally remote from the contacts 36 and 31. A ball, as shown by dotted lines 33, will tilt the lever 33 to the position in which it is shown by dotted lines 40 and the body of mercury 33 will run leftwardly into engagement with the contacts 33' and 31, thereby closing a circuit 40' containing a current source 4| and'solenoids 42 having arma tures 43. The armatures 43 have extensions 44, as shown in Fig. 2. The solenoids 42 are mounted on the under faces of the floor member II in such positions that the extensions 44 will align with the rearward portions of the openinfls 23 so that when the switch 34 closes the circuit 40' the extension 44 will move up to the dotted line position 45 and move the ball I511 to the position 41 forwardly of the inverted U-shaped guard loop 48. The action of the solenoids 42 will be of instantaneous character owing to the fact that a ball will readily roll from the position in which it is shown in Fig. 2, thereby releasing the lever 33 so that the switch 34 may open.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a game apparatus, the combination of:

an inclined playing board having a ball exit opening formed in the upper portion thereof; said playing board having ball seats or pockets spaced at intervals between the lower end thereof and said ball exit opening; said ball seats having scoring values, and the said scoring values of said ball seats increasing in the descending order of their arrangement upon said playing board; means for propelling balls one at a time onto the upper portion of said playing .board so that they may gravitate thereover into the uppermost of said ball seats or into said ball exit 40 opening; and means including an electromagnetic device actuated by a ball passing through said exit opening to dislodge a ball from the uppermost of said ball seats so that the thus dislodged ball may gravitate over said playing board into another of said ball seats of higher scoring value than the said ball seat from which it is thus dislodged.

2. In a game apparatus, the combination of: a member providing an inclined ball playing surface; said playing surface being provided with a ball seat and said member having a ball exit opening .extending vertically therethrough: means for propelling balls one at a time onto the upper portion of said playing surface so that they may gravitate thereover and enter said ball seat or pass downwardly through said ball exit opening; an inclined ball runway below said playing surface and having communication with said ball exit opening for returning a ball from said exit opening to a point adjacent said propelling means; and means actuated by a ball passing downwardly through said exit opening into said runway to dislodge a ball vertically upwardly from said ball seat onto said playing surface so that the said ball thus dislodged from said ball seat may continue to gravitate over said playing surface.

3. A game apparatus of the class described embodying aninclined deck; means for impeiling balls onto said deck; a plurality of tracks inclined from the horizontal on said deck and adapted to deliver impelled balls intopockets in said deck; means for retaining balls at the upper ends of said tracks; and means operatively associated with a hole in said deck and spaced away from said tracks and operated by the weight of a single ball passing thru said hole for lifting a plurality of balls simultaneously onto said tracks.

I HARRY E. WIILIAMS. 

